Amazing And Needs To Be Seen By Others

Rise April Challenge 15: Buddy

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Ao3 Link: Here

Buddy really liked his friends. They were fun, and always fixed him up when he got torn up. They were great!

Sometimes they got torn up too. But it was different than when he was ripped. A bit of tape and paper and he was fine, but his friends didn’t work like that.  

They leaked when they got a tare, apparently it was called “bleeding,” and they needed to wait a long time to get better. Thankfully Blue-Friend was very good at fixing human rips and holes, they also were harder to rip them than Buddy.

But there was another thing that was different.

He had been confused when his Orange-Friend made a huge amount of noise as Blue smeared a green cream over his fingers. When the smaller one had yelled as he ripped his hand from the hot pan, Buddy had thought that it was to call the Blue one to help. But even as he was getting fixed, Orange kept yelping and shouting. Why? Blue was already here.  

It had been very confusing.

-

He ended up asking Red-Friend. It was hard since he didn’t know how to say a lot of words, although Purple-One was teaching him more.

“Hey, Buddy. What’s up?” Red asked as he walked into the dojo.

“Buddy!” The paperman said. He found out that his name was also a used to say friend. That was very fun! He waited till he was closer before beginning to piece together his question.

“Why... do... Orange... make noise... when...” Buddy paused, trying to grab the word. “...he touch... hot?” That worked.

Red furrowed his eyes.

“When he got burned?” Burned! That was the word. He’ll try to remember that.  

Buddy nodded.

“Well, it hurt. That’s kinda what you do.”

Hurt. That wasn’t a new word, Buddy had heard it before, but he didn’t know what it meant.

“What... ‘hurt’?”

Red looked shocked, before shaking his head.

“Right, forgot that you don’t know this stuff. Hurt is... uh, like when you feel pain.”

“Pain?” He didn’t know that one.

“It’s like-” Red started but stopped and stared at Buddy. Buddy stared back. “Do you... like feel pain? It’s just that your paper and-” He stopped again, and Buddy just waited. “Pain is like when your body is yelling at you. That something is hurting- uh, that something is wrong. Do you... have that?”

Buddy thought about it. He always knew when something was wrong with his body, but it never yelled at him. (He thinks Red meant that part ‘figuratively’. (Good word, Buddy!)) It was just him knowing that it wasn’t right.  

He eventually shook his head.  

“Oh. Well, that makes sense. Don’t worry about the noises, Buddy. It’s just something we do.”  

Buddy nodded and left to go think.

So, his friends got “hurt” and felt “pain.” That did not sound fun. Buddy thought of other times his friends were hurt. He recalled their scrunched-up faces and the ugly sounds they made. He thought of the way they squirmed, trying to get away from their rips, or how they clenched their teeth. He decided that he didn’t like seeing his friends be hurt.  

But if it was bad for him to see hurt, was it worse to have pain?  

Buddy decided that he was happy he didn’t have pain, and he was also going to make sure that his friends didn’t need to get pain.

Buddy smiled tucked away this line of thought and wondered off to see if anyone wanted to play a game with him.

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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 from other fans. Feel free to give me feedback if I need to work on anything.

Moments Chapter 2: Disaster Twins

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Ao3 Link: Here

Donnie and Leo loved to get each other gifts. It started with small things when they were younger. Leo brings home a bundle of wires from dumpster diving, or Donnie finds sparkly plastic jewelry for Leo to wear around the lair. There was something about seeing an item and instantly thinking that the other person would like it.

-  

On their 8th birthday, Leo pulled Donnie aside from the celebration and towards their room. Donnie grumbled at Leo's excited giggling and yanked his hand back to sit down as soon as they were through the door and alone. Leo didn't seem to mind, still smiling like a madman.  

"I got you a gift!" Leo said, and Donnie just rolled his eyes.  

"I know you did. You're not very good at keeping secrets. The only thing I don't know is where you're keeping it." The slider glared at his twin and with a huff reached under Donnie's bed. He then pulled out a small cardboard box with a bow on it. Donnie raised his eyebrows.  

"You hid it under my bed?" He asked.  

"Uh, yeah! Why would you look under your bed?" That was a fair point, Donnie conceded, then reached under his extra pillow, and pulled out a similarly sized box. Leo grinned and shoved his box into Donnie's hand before snatching the other one.  

Leo stuck the bow to his head before ripping through the paper and rifling through the tissue paper inside. Donnie on the other hand was very careful in peeling up the pieces of tape, setting the bow to the side before unfolding the tissue paper and pulling out a white coffee mug. It was covered in designs of constellations and atoms that Leo clearly drew himself in varying shades of purple.  

Donnie blinked down at the gift in surprise and looked up at Leo, who was pulling his own white mug covered in Donnie's hand-drawn designs, these of unicorns and rainbows. Leo broke out into a huge smile and began to laugh.  

"We really are twins!" He shouted.  

"Shut up," Donnie mumbled, annoyed.  

-  

7 years later, Donnie was sitting in his lab finishing up the wrapping on his gift for his twin. He smoothed out the wrapping paper across the heavy box with steady hands, trying to dispel the nervousness that always came with getting a gift for his brothers.  

Over the years both Donnie and Leo had given a lot of gifts to each other and to the rest of their family. Sometimes it was for special occasions, sometimes they saw something that the other person would like or need and just did it, sometimes it was just because. But giving gifts to Leo always felt different.  

The thing was that, at least for Donnie, the gift exchanges were reminders of how well the twins knew each other. Donnie had a hard time understanding any of his brothers, but with Leo, it was a bit easier. He believed it had something to do with them both being people of thought, rather than action, like Raph and Mikey. Leo may have acted stupid, but Donnie knew that his true strength lay in his strategy, in his understanding and manipulation of the enemy. He tended to show it casually most of the time, but it was always still impressive.  

But the point was that Donnie understood Leo on a level that he didn't quite with the rest of his family, and each time they gave each other gifts it helped reinforce that understanding. Plus, it was an easy way to show that they loved each other, without all the complexities of emotion.  

Donnie reached out and grabbed a scrap of paper and a pen out of an old coffee mug, with purple hand-drawn constellations and atoms, scribbled a quiet "happy birthday" on the paper and stuck it under the bow. He then walked out and knocked on Leo's door.  

He heard scrambling from inside and was greeted with a bright overwhelming smile on his twin's face.  

"Finally! Why do you always say wrapping till the last minute?" Leo yelped as he pulled Donnie inside his room. Donnie didn't dignify the question with an answer and shoved the present into Leo's hands. Leo in turn put the box on the ground and shoved his own huge brightly wrapped box into Donnie's.  

It had been a tradition ever since that first 8th birthday that they would give each other their presents separate from the rest of their family just so they could have a moment with each other alone on their birthday. And Donnie always had the strangest sense of Deja Vu whenever they did it. It was always a reminder of how little he and his twin had changed as they grew older. Because Leo still ripped and tore through the paper after sticking the bow on his head, and Donnie always peeled away the tape, to the point that Leo only used one or two pieces on the whole box to make the process faster.  

Once it was open Donnie picked up a new soldering tool, remembering how he mentioned his old one was fizzing out uncontrollably, and in another box a Jupiter Jim comic book wrapped in cellophane. With a card on top that read "Mint condition ;)." Donnie felt himself start to wiggle and put down the box to flap his arms up and down, he wished he was in his wheelchair so we could spin around. He looked up to thank Leo and hug him, only to find Leo already leaning across the gap with an excited squeal, talking so fast that Donnie couldn't keep up.  

In Leo's lap was a new custom wooden chess set, with each of the pieces a different sea creature. (Except for the nights which were unicorns, because his brother never grew out of that phase.)  

Donnie hugged Leo back with a smile and patted him on the back before they drew apart.  

"This is great, Don! I love it so much! You've got to play with me later today!"  

Donnie just sighed and rolled his eyes, accepting the fact that he was going to get his butt whooped in chess because he never could be Leo at that game.  

"Later," he said. "Let's just enjoy the party." Leo smiled and bolted for the door, dragging his twin behind.  

Just like always.

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Thank you to @rise-august-art-challenge for hosting the Rise August Challenge, which this is inspired by.

Please let me know if I should improve or fix something.

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

Thanks Techno. Good night. o7

Season Sneak Peek

Reblog if you didn’t write My Immortal

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

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 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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Ao3 Link: Here

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.

wilburs thoughts on tommy and existing

WAIT! SO I CAN REBLOG OTHER PEOPLES AMAZING WORK, AND IT WON’T BE THEFT?! I CAN SHARE WHAT MAKES ME HAPPY WITH OTHERS WITHOUT RUINING IT FOR THE ORIGINAL POSTER?!!! YES!!!!!

I’ll be back in a few hours, I HAVE SO MUCH TO SHARE!

Is it just me or are the new tumblr users convinced there's a penalty of some kind for using this site like it's meant to be used?