Zoozve, My Beloved

Are you saying that you wouldn't explore a creepy burned down building?

Week.

the fears aren't fears anymore they're just levels of stupidity now. having body image issues? lemme put a scalpel to my eye! there's a weird spooky building that got burned down? sure thing let's go explore! someone mysteriously sent me movie tickets for an unknown film even tho i never gave out my address? sounds like a lucky break to me!

literally how have these people survived this long

Amazing and needs to be seen by others

Not mine, but BEAUTIFUL!

doodled a little Marta while rewatching knives out, definitely one of my desert island movies (all time fav category)

Moments Chapter 1: Mad Dogs

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AO3 Link: Here

Draxum was still adjusting to being in contact with his creations. He had thought they had been destroyed with his lab, so when he saw them alive, he had been overwhelmed. When he had lost them, he hadn't truly mourned, he had been uncertain if the experiment would work and wasn't sure what it would have created, he wasn't even certain if they would be fully sentient. The fact that they were alive and there had caused a rush of emotion. Surprise and shock, but also pride and wonder. He had called them beautiful, and he had meant it.  

As they fought, Draxum observed them carefully, trying to see what his creations had become in his absence. They had somehow managed to find the scrapped prototypes for the weapons that he had intended to give them if he had raised them. And each of them seemed to use them with at least a moderate form of success. Impressive. But what was more impressive was the fact that they could speak clearly, enough to banter with him and each other, and they each seem to have different and separate personalities from each other.  

Even though he only spent a short time with them he could see that they had become people. Not weapons, or animals, or some empty shell that could be puppeteered. They were aware, sentient, alive. It made some small and strange thing bloom in his chest. He had ignored it.  

He learned eventually that they called themselves "The Mad Dogs." Draxum had creased his eyebrows at the name, wondering why they would want to name themselves after a crazed and feral animal. But otherwise had not thought about it.  

-  

It had not been until much later that he remembered he had made them to be weapons.  

It had been a hard thing to remember. They acted up and goofed around so much, and rarely took anything seriously. Even when he had revealed a core piece of their identity, the truth about their human DNA, all they had done was squeal like little girls and jump up and down. And though he saw their power, it was easy for Draxum to continue thinking of them as nothing more than children. It took him seeing how they reacted after the Krang invasion to remember that fact.  

Draxum had received a call from Michelangelo's phone shortly after the chaos had settled. All he had managed to gather was that Michelangelo had done something mystical and had been severely injured before he was out the door and on his way to the turtle's lair.  

-  

When he arrived, he ignored the mess that the layer was in and march straight to the med bay. He threw the door straight open with a slam.  

"Would anyone care to tell me-" he started, but he was immediately interrupted.  

The Alchemist found himself tackled harshly against the wall, pinned there by a steel-like forearm across his neck, and staring down the glowing purple of a mystic technological weapon. Beyond the weapon he saw two animalistic eyes reflecting the purple light, pupils blown wide with adrenaline. Draxum froze under Donatello's gaze, the two eyes pinned him more securely to the wall than even the threat of the weapon. From behind the softshell, he heard a deep rumbling, and when he managed to look beyond the thing pinning him to the wall, he saw three more pairs of eyes staring him down intently. He felt his heartbeat pick up several notches, and his breath catch. His hind mind kicked into gear telling him to leave, screaming "threat!" in his ear. He felt like he had stumbled upon a den of predators, willing and able to kill him without thought. Like a pack of ravenous, hungry, and crazed dogs.  

"Donnie," a voice said, and all attention twisted from him to the source. April stood in the corner; hands raised in surrender. "Donnie it's okay, it's just Barry. He's here to help Mikey, remember?"  

Slowly, the purple turtle leaned back from Draxum. His weapon dissolved and he stepped away, pupils still wide but holding more clarity than before. Donatello nodded, glared at Draxum, and retreated towards the bed his brothers were gathered around.  

Now that Draxum was able to get a clearer look at the room, he nearly winced at the state of the brothers. Leonardo was by far the worst, wrapped in a huge number of bandages and looked trapped in the bed under the weight of the injuries. Raphael was favoring his left side, his right I was swollen shut, he had his body hunched over the bed pointing his spiked shell outwards and revealing the puncture wound above his shoulder. Donatello looked the best out of the brothers, resting on the foot of the bed like a sentry, but he was leaning on his bo staff like a crutch, and the Alchemist could still see bandages and patches on his arm. He also noted the lack of battle shell and the way the turtle angled his real shell away from him. Michelangelo was sitting at the end of the bed too, and Draxum saw the burns reaching up his forearms and the way his hand shook. They all still pinned him with that unnerving stare, but it was less of a threat and more of a warning.  

"Sorry," April said. "You just startled them a little, they're still kind of on edge."  

"Yeah," Michelangelo said from the bed, with a small smile, but his voice was hoarse and weak. "Sorry."  

"Don't apologize," Draxum said. He slowly approached the bed trying to keep his body language relaxed. "Now," he said gesturing for Michelangelo to show his injuries. The others' animalistic eyes still pinned on him. "Would you mind telling me exactly what happened?"  

-  

Later, when Draxum would try to go to sleep, the image of those stares would burst through his mind, and he would be wide awake again. He would be reminded of the name "Mad Dogs" and would find that it suddenly fit.  

Because no matter how childish they were, how silly, how kind, they would always have the capability to be weapons. They would always be more powerful than almost everyone they would ever meet. They would always have a wild part of themselves, that would seek to eliminate any threat to themselves or to anyone they cared about. It was a frightening thought, and The Alchemist was suddenly very happy that he had not raised the boys.  

Because no matter how much he had missed, and he had missed so much, he was happy that they had the chance to be more than weapons. Happy they had the chance to be more than crazed and feral animals. Happy that they had been raised as children and not soldiers. Happy that that wild part of themselves was not the only thing that defined them.  

Even if he still did not understand why they chose to call themselves by that title, he was happy it was a part of themselves that they could embrace along with their... humanity.

-

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Thank you for reading. Let me know if there is anything I should work on.

Thank you to @sariphantom for hosting the Rise August Challenge, which this is inspired by.

@nickelodeon Please save Rise.

Reblog if you love AO3 and appreciate their volunteers who are working harder than God, fighting battle after battle, making sure the place that is a safe space for every fandom is staying up and running for all of us

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.

The expressions! The way you can feel the cold!

I love this art! It was my inspiration for Day 13 of Rise April! (Along with my own experience.)

Just look at it!!!!!

Sometimes you just have to sit down under the rain, and let the drops run over your body. Just like warm tears, let them heal wounds and ease the pain. Let them wash away the blood that you had to shed and soothe the broken heart.

You heard them folks. Spread the love!

(And don't worry Zee, we're just happy you are helping out this community and making us all feel welcome 🥰)

I'm not sure which of your blogs I should put this in, but whenever you comment on my pictures for the Rise April Challange, it really makes me happy to the moon! And it feels like I'm not wasting my time either. Thank you so much for hosting this challenge and letting everyone see each others work! Before I downloaded tumbler, I really didn't know there were so many more fans for the show out there. I really feel like I belong here. I love everyone's art and stories, and I really hope we can save Rise as a community! Thank you again, so, so much! ❤🧡💙💜🐢

Lol. All joking aside though, thank you for participating. And I want to support as many people as I can. I’m tired of toxic fandoms. I saw we invite people in, treat each other with respect, help each other out. And I’m happy you found a community! We all need a place to belong!

Keep up the great work! Sorry I’m not getting to them fast enough! I have so much stupid homework to do!

Rise April Challenge 19: Baby

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A thick blanket had been thrown over the cold tile floor of the kitchen, images of dinosaurs and volcanoes spread across its surface. A few stuffed animals and some of Donnie and Mickey's old fidget toys had been spread across the blanket. Mikey lay on his stomach, his upper half resting on the blanket while the rest of him hung off.  

The box turtle stared wide eyed at the four small forms crawling around on the blanket in awe.

When Draxum had called and explained that Mikey’s brothers had been transformed into children, Mikey had thought that he had meant ten to twelve. Not literal babies.

He could hear Splinter and Draxum arguing in the room over, but from what he could tell it was mostly just worried shouting with a few insults. Nothing that really needed Dr Feelings’ supervision. Besides, he was too busy staring at the little baby turtles crawling around on the floor.

They were so... tiny. Leo and Donnie could sit in Mikey's cupped hands, and while Raph was a bit too big for that, being twice the height of the other two. Mikey wondered how their dad had raised them without worrying about stepping on them.

Raph was currently chewing on the paw of a teddy bear, that he was cuddling with. Donnie had gotten hold of one of Mikey's old slinkies and was rolling it forward and back from where he sat with a look of very serious concentration. Leo on the other hand was giggling and trying to work the buttons on a fidget cube but that was the size of his chest. Mikey just stared at his little brothers.

Little brothers. Mikey had little brothers.

Holy cow, Mikey was a Big Brother!  

The thought made him squeal with overwhelming giddiness and excitement. He knew that this wasn’t going to last very long, Draxum had said that they should be fine by tomorrow, but still!

Donnie made a small quacking bark as he pushed the slinky too hard and it rolled farther away. The baby turtle wobbly stood up and stumbled towards the toy.  Leo stopped and looked over at the noise and, seeing his brother, he dropped the cube and crawled over. Just as Donnie had reached his toy, Leo stood up and with a smile and a loud squeal, leaned forward and fell on his brother in a hug/tackle. Donnie yelped and grunted as he tried to wiggle out from under his red eared brother.  

The noise broke Raph of his cuddle with his teddy bear. He stood and walked over to his brothers, much steadier than the younger two. He leaned over the wriggling mass and wrapped his arms around them and picked the twins up and held them to his chest, which just made the noise louder.

Raph then looked over at Mikey and held up Donnie and Leo with a proud look on his face while the other two just stared.  

Mikey wasn’t going to make it! This was it!  

The now eldest sat up and reached over, grabbed them all and placed his brothers in his lap. Donnie had settled and seemed resigned to the cuddle fest and just glared at them all. Leo settled across his twin’s back, rubbing his cheek across Don’s soft shell, and closed his eyes. Raph just sat up and swung his tail back and forth letting out happy chuffing purrs. Mikey just smiled and tried to keep from squirming in joy. Then he reached over and grabbed his phone, opening the camera.

He was going to tease them so much when they were fixed!

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Please check out @zee-rambles who came up with this challenge and look at @rise-april-art-challenge to see more submissions by other fans. Please give me feedback if there is anything I should work on.

Moments Chapter 4: Yoaki

Ao3 Link

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(I've failed this challenge but whatever, I'm going to keep going.)

Warning for kinda Unhappy Ending

Donnie had always known he and his brothers weren’t human. Anyone could have known that. Humans had five fingers on each hand; humans had skin without scales, humans had a body temperature of 36.5–37.5 °C.  

He and his brothers were not human.

When he had seen the hidden city for the first time, Donnie’s first thoughts had been: Oh me gosh! Oh me gosh! Oh me gosh!  

His second thought was: Wow! Wow! Wow!  

I had taken twenty or thirty thoughts before he had made the shocking realization.  

The people who lived there were like them.  

Yoaki. That was what the people in that city called themselves. That’s what he and his brothers were. The discovery had made Donnie start wiggling in place and flapping one of his hands. He had a name now, a label, a name for the “what” they were, to go along with the “who” they were.  

He felt the relief and excitement of a missing piece slotting into place, intensified by the fact that his family wasn’t a mystery anymore.  

They weren’t different anymore, they were just yoaki.

-

The first time Donnie questioned that theory was when Draxum revealed he had created them.  

Created. Made.  

The words carried an implication behind it. An implication that their existence wasn’t entirely natural. That they weren't born from the biological processes that were normally used to create life.  

But Donnie had put it aside. It was just the villain being dramatic. Besides, maybe yoaki reproduction was different than humans. Maybe yoaki were made instead of born.  

That must be it. After all, they were yoaki.  

-  

Donnie’s discovery regarding his and his brothers’ identity was next called into doubt on their second visit to Run of the Mill. When Mikey had chirped at Raph gratefully Raph had caved under Mikey’s puppy eyes and had ordered ice cream for the table. The waiter, some kind of snake yoaki, had startled at the chirp and stared at Mikey for a long second. Then had seemed to come back to themself and asked Raph to repeat the order.  

It had reminded Donnie of the early days with April, how she had to get used to how they acted. How she had walked in on them in a turtle pile and given them a look with a furrowed brow. How she had seen their old heat lamps and asked about what they were for and then had looked at them with pity when they said that they needed them for the winter months. How she had wrinkled her nose when she learned they lived in the sewer.  

April didn’t do that anymore. She had ended up with her own reserved spot in the turtle pile, she didn’t show pity or worry when they were resting under the heat lamps, and she had gone swimming with them in the sewer tunnels. Donnie didn’t feel “other” with her anymore. But the look on that waiter’s face had brought back all those memories, and Donnie felt himself sink into the booth, trying to hide.  

The others hadn’t noticed the waiter’s look, of course they didn’t, they never did.

-

Donnie had convinced himself that it didn’t matter. One weird look wasn’t enough to disprove his theory.  

His brothers and him were still yoaki.

-

The next challenge to his theory came from his father when he had told them about the lab and their creation, about how they had started as just tiny turtles, and how they had been made to be weapons.  

Donnie had sat and thought back through every memory he had, his life flashing before his eyes.  

He remembered Raph’s insane strength and the way he went Savage when left alone for too long.  

He remembered how Mikey would curl up in his shell and not come out for ages if he was scared, how he would stop talking mid-sentence to stare intently with a single-minded purpose at anything that moved.  

He remembered how Leo would always subtly check everyone’s pulses seemingly at random, and how he could sit underwater for minutes at a time and never come up for air.  

Donnie remembered how he would grit his teeth to push back the urge to just bite whatever was annoying him, how he could smell like a bloodhound if he wanted, and how he would-  

No.  

No. No. This didn’t mean that they weren’t yoaki. They were just turtles that turned into yoaki. They had to be.  

There was nothing else they could be.

-

The last thing that completely destroyed Donnie’s hope came from Baron Draxum.  

He had been doing his best to connect with Barry, at least for Mikey’s sake, and it had actually been going well. The two had found common ground in the realm of science. Donnie would almost say that he had been having fun with his...  

With Draxum.  

Then, Donnie just had to be an idiot and open his mouth.  

“So, why did you want turtle yoaki for your army? And why couldn’t you just find some in the hidden city?”  

Barry didn’t look up from where he was reading over Donnie’s blueprints for the Turtle Tank as he answered.  

“Well, for starters I didn’t make yoaki. Second, I-”  

The rest of the words turned into white noise in Donnie’s nonexistent ears. (Tympanum. His mind said.)  

“Yes, we are.” He said cutting off Barry, causing him to look up from his reading with a frown.  

“You are what?”  

“We’re yoaki. Me and my brothers. You’re wrong.” Donnie tried to sound confident and glare down the Baron, but he could feel his resolve cracking. Draxum looked back over his glasses with annoyed confusion.  

“I made you; I know what you are. And you’re not yoaki.”  

Donnie felt himself brake at the words.  

“Then what are we!?” He snarled at Draxum. The alchemist leaned back, surprised at the sudden change in Donnie’s tone. “What are we?! Because we’re not human! And despite how we act sometimes, we’re not animals either! So, tell me! WHAT ARE WE?!”  

Donnie was heaving and shaking staring down at the floor with wet eyes. He then slumped and fell into his chair, trying to calm himself.  

“You’re mutants.” Donnie looked up at Barry, who was looking at him with a look that Donnie couldn’t read.  

“That word doesn’t mean anything,” Donnie said, defeated. “It’s just another name for freaks.” The hope that he and his brothers could be anything more than accidents of nature and science dying in his chest.  

After a second the Baron leaned back with a huff and gazed at the ceiling.  

“I’m not going to try and challenge that idea; it seems to be buried too deep in your subconscious.” He closed his eyes and let out a slow breath. “And I am sorry I don’t have a better answer to your questions. Somethings are just mysteries.”  

“I don’t want to be a mystery,” Donnie whispered. Barry didn’t respond.  

The two just sat in silence for a few minutes, the alchemist not knowing what to say, and the turtle not able to force the words out, then Draxum turned to his creation and took him in.  

“Do you wish for me to leave?” He asked, and Donnie nodded. “Shall I fetch your brothers for you?” Donnie shook his head, he needed to be alone to think. To accept this information. Draxum just nodded.  

“Try to talk to your family about this. They may be able to help you.”  

Don just curled up more and watched Barry walk away.  

-

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Thank you for reading. Let me know if there is anything I should work on.

Thank you to @sariphantom for hosting the Rise August Challenge, which this is inspired by.

@nickelodeon Please save Rise.